Client Relationship Manager

City of London (Blackfriars) | £42,000 – £60,000 | Min. 3 days office-based | Permanent, Full-Time

Sensical is looking for a technically capable and commercially aware Client Relationship Manager to help manage and develop relationships with some of our largest and most important clients. Reporting to the Operations Director, this is a varied role combining relationship management, technical understanding, commercial judgement and business development.

You will work closely with senior client stakeholders to develop a genuine understanding of their businesses, objectives and challenges, and becoming a trusted point of contact while ensuring we continue to deliver the high standards of service and trusted advice they have come to expect.

We're looking for someone with broad technical understanding, business acumen, excellent interpersonal skills and, above all, sound judgement and a practical approach to problem-solving. This is a newly created position offering the opportunity to develop a long-term role within Sensical, with potential for broader account responsibilities as you and the business grow.

Role and Responsibilities

You will act as a bridge between the client and our technical, operational and commercial teams, translating short- and long-term business requirements into practical solutions, coordinating proposals and ensuring that client expectations are understood and managed effectively. This isn't a traditional sales-led account management role. Our approach is built around understanding our clients, providing sound advice and developing relationships based on trust, reliability and mutual success.

Client Relationship Management

• Build and maintain strong, trusted relationships with key client stakeholders, including at executive-level. Develop a thorough understanding of client business, priorities, challenges and longer-term objectives, acting as a primary point of contact for account-related matters.
• Anticipate client concerns, manage expectations, take ownership of enquiries, including coordinating or escalating appropriately.
• Join client governance meetings, vendor committees and other strategic discussions, preparing for meetings and following through on agreed actions.

Requirements Gathering and Proposal Development

• EUnderstand new requests, gather and clarify business requirements, and translate incomplete or ambiguous information into defined scopes of work. Ask appropriate questions, identify dependencies and constraints, ensure requirements are sufficiently developed before internal scoping begins.
• Liaise with our internal technical and commercial teams to assess technical approaches, resources allocation, costs and timescales, and complete a thorough handover for approved work.
• Guide clients through the proposal and approval process, including discussing options, budgets, priorities and expectations. Coordinate quotations, proposals and statements of work, ensuring internal approvals are obtained and commercial considerations documented.

Service and Delivery Engagement

• Act as the client's voice internally, maintaining awareness of service performance, outstanding concerns and client satisfaction, working alongside our Service Delivery and Support Managers, and help colleagues understand expectations and wider context.

• Participate in project kick-off meetings and significant client discussions, providing continuity between the initial requirement and delivery.
• Assist with resolving account-level concerns, commercial questions and escalations, engaging the relevant operational managers or directors as necessary, and ensuring communication is clear, consistent, and sensitive.

Commercial and Strategic Development

• Contribute to longer-term technology planning and client roadmaps building.
• Identify commercially worthwhile opportunities to improve existing services, address client challenges and deliver additional value through technology, while balancing the interests of the client and Sensical.
• Develop a sound understanding of our commercial models, pricing principles, contractual boundaries and service offerings, to support contract renewals, service changes and commercial discussions.

We're interested in finding the right person, rather than someone who has necessarily held the same job title before. What matters most is your ability to demonstrate sound judgement, commercial awareness, technical understanding and the interpersonal skills needed to develop trusted, long-term client relationships.

Experience and Professional Skills

• Extensive experience in a client-facing technical, operational, commercial or account management role, ideally within an IT services, MSP or technology environment. This may also include IT service delivery, technical consultancy, or project management.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with stakeholders at all levels to build trust and drive actions forward.
• Sound commercial judgement, including an understanding of profitability, contractual obligations, scope management and the importance of maintaining appropriate commercial boundaries
• Confidence in commercial conversations, managing expectations and negotiating practical outcomes professionally and within agreed authority, and understanding the practical considerations that influence decision-making.
• Analytical and pragmatic problem-solving, with the ability to work through incomplete information, ask appropriate questions and develop practical, proportionate solutions rather than unnecessary complexity.
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and coordinate contributions from others.

Personal Attributes

• Sound judgement: Able to assess situations objectively, make sensible decisions and recognise when specialist input or escalation is required.
• Intellectual curiosity: Interested in understanding how things work, learning about unfamiliar technologies and developing knowledge independently.
• Adaptability: Comfortable learning established working practices and building on successful client relationships, rather than assuming that one approach suits every client.
• Ownership and accountability: Takes responsibility for progressing matters, follows through on commitments and doesn't rely on constant supervision.
• Emotional intelligence: Understands different personalities, stakeholder expectations and the importance of how information and decisions are communicated.
• Collaborative approach: Works effectively with colleagues across different disciplines, values specialist expertise and knows when to seek advice.
• Professional integrity: Provides honest, balanced advice and is comfortable constructively challenging clients or colleagues when appropriate.

Technical Understanding

The role requires broad technical literacy rather than deep specialisation in any particular technology. You should be comfortable discussing IT systems and solutions, understanding technical proposals and engaging intelligently with engineers and consultants. We would expect:

• Good general understanding of business IT infrastructure, incl. networks, servers, cloud services, endpoints and common enterprise applications.
• Familiarity with managed IT services, including support arrangements, service levels, maintenance, monitoring and the operational responsibilities of an MSP.
• Awareness of cybersecurity principles, incl. access management, system security, patching, resilience and compliance considerations.
• Understanding of the typical lifecycle of IT systems, incl. procurement, implementation, maintenance, upgrades and replacement.
• Ability to understand technical requirements, identify gaps or risks and engage appropriate specialists to develop suitable solutions.
• Appreciation of Total Cost of Ownership, including implementation, licensing, support, maintenance and ongoing operational costs.
• Ability and willingness to research unfamiliar technologies, make use of available resources and quickly develop sufficient understanding to contribute meaningfully to discussions.

Experience with Microsoft 365, Azure, networking, virtualisation, cybersecurity technologies or other common business IT platforms would be beneficial.

Desirable Experience

• Involvement in developing technical quotations, commercial proposals, SoWs or responses to tenders.
• Experience gathering business requirements and coordinating technical scoping activities.

• Annual performance-related bonus of up to 10%
• Company pension scheme with up to 4% employer matching contributions
• Additional day off on your birthday
• Employee discount scheme through Perkbox
• Training and support for relevant professional certifications and ongoing development
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Vitality Private Health Insurance, including dental, optical and mental health benefits
• Enhanced sick pay
• Season ticket loan
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) allowance
• Regular staff events
• Office refreshments